The biggest cut log around here, right around Halloween, is shaped like a Tootsie Roll (remember those?) and has a hole in the middle worthy of being filled with pints of creme. It is the top of the pile, pick of the litter, and by comparison TP’ing pales. (But more, as in what costumes and other late decorations showed, and what didn’t … I’ll hit this description right after elections, as I first want to ascertain if any Trump masks still show up and provide the of-course silly commentary on their ‘positions.’

Up the way from our house is another guy who really needed to get the log jam in his backyard cleared out — and then fall came! And started ebbing. So there soon were about a hundred pieces of cut word placed up front for sale, and the biggest one at the top featured a uniform four-inch round hole, like the double-part shape of so many single candies with really cool-as-the-season gooey stuff, stuffed into the middle. This hole could also be seen as a size that would fit a roll of toilet paper — not the fat primo kind — but am I the only one who has noticed, nobody TPs any more; it seems to have gone out of style, or limited by the virus. Dare I say, Killing Us Softly?
Just throwing this into the kitty … Referenced on social media a day or two before Halloween and on, was a cat that’s been seen that is “black and white. Really.” I get the irony of a black cat, but … black … is that unusual for the 31st? The regional chapter of the satanic marketing committee says that this theme runs through 55 percent of the time. Just kidding, they disbanded 2,000 years ago. And white tends to cancel black anyway, so no harm done. Yet another heavy metal aside, the late great Ronnie James Dio made a career with lyrics about The Black And The White, The Dark And The Light, The Good And The Evil. And one more aside, his in-concert video to support his Sacred Heart CD — you get the literally bleeding messiah heart I presume — was played in a way that took over from sports bar TV at the iconic Dibbo’s rock club all through a Halloween past. Made my holiday. If only Ronnie could wield a sword better, being short in stature, when literally slaying a dragon at the back of the huge stage. Maybe should bring in some of your old Black Sabbath bandmates, the more burly ones, to do more than just Forget All That Macho Shit And Learn How To Play Guitar. (Sang John Cougar, and that name is not just his Halloween costume).
Where Do We Go Now, Where Do We Go … Right now, with social distancing and all, even if a costumed centipede stuck to themselve(s), and wanted to dance the night away, they would be in violation. But there is a place you still can get your groove on, late on basically any weekend night and Thursdays too, because the wayback room(s) large dance floor is not what you might expect, simply spacious. And if you are a lady and dressing like ladies do over the Halloween weekend, and your butt is indeed frozen off by the continuing wind advisory, even though you wanted to partake in the party at my suggested solution, BX Mexican in River Falls, there is a way to make it up, like the Irish did this year on St. Patrick’s Day. Make plans, between study days if you are a college student, for any of four consecutive nights on most weeks, to cut the rug.
Any then the commentary from “professionals” as a how to on this holiday. The late publisher on the weekly where I cut my teeth as a reporter/editor, always spelled Halloween with an appostrophe between the last two vowels, so totally old school and possibly easier on the non-consinents than All Hallows. And a local psychiatrist says this about describing the unusual behavior seen: You get a bunch of people in this profession together at a conventiion and after the speakers, go out and have a beer …

Share the Post:

Related Posts

My mom has told me not to be a potty mouth when I write, as she certainly would not appreciate hardly any of the standup humor on say, Comedy Central Radio. SNL maybe. But after 11:30 p.m. … But there comes a time where a man must make a stand. And for this jokester, it was now when he had to choose whether to pass on the opportunity that would otherwise bite him in the butt, for in front of and behind him is the Mother Lode. Or should I say load. Or “Mothers” of Invention. Heh heh, heh heh, Butthead, look...
So the wall is down. Of letters, that is. Not down by Mexico. Cemented into the concrete. Of the Kennedy Center. Where music has sat. (Near where a now defunct wrestling arena rusts in peace. Or a bloodied White House lawn. With leftover paper cups and plates, more likely bowls and small utensils, anyone?) Or more ornate than inside? A tarp the size of Pennsylvania, the predominant battle state, covers workers as they chip. So geez, how big are the letters? Four times 50 living workers high? But now none remain, or so we are told by flunkies. Or is...
A few years back, I wrote an article about Hudson Deacon Tom Kroll and how he did so many extra dutiful tasks, his living out the Gospels tirelessly, when his wife was ill, in addition to his regular job. I was inspired at the time to pen this, about my own lovely, disabled wife — we were separated briefly but now back together with our 40th anniversary this month, as wholehearted caregiving has many strains — and how an atypical view of standard roles, out of necessity, made things work, as far as our approach to work and home that’s...
What do fishing, maybe in the dark, thus a Texas ranch, snakes of various types and do they come or stay out after dusk, eating either and only fine food or snacks, and a game of cards — likely just one each — have in common. And no strippers or Chippendales. And an only half or quarter, not full Monty. (Who is Monty anyway?) Or cowboy or cowgirl hats. Although there was some dress-up. More Barbie than boots on, I think. It’s an easy answer, connected and conflicting, but not in all or dirty ways, bachelor and bachelorette parties. One of each...
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Scroll to Top